Happy Banned Book Week!

Officially starting today & lasting until October 2nd is Banned Books Week, a week where we celebrate the books that some would have us never read. Maybe it's because they have witchcraft in them or other elements that someone might think makes for an "indecent" read.

Now when most of us think banned books, we think about the titles such as Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, or Lady Chatterly's Lover. We assume that the titles banned were older books & that it all happened years ago, that we wouldn't dare ban books now.

You'd be surprised at what some areas still tries to keep off their bookshelves. Would you believe that some people have tried to ban Blood & Chocolate, The Face on the Milk Carton, Harry Potter, & Twilight? Some of the groups trying to remove these books have actually succeeded, although it wasn't long before many of these books were returned to the public shelves they'd been snatched from.

That's why it's so incredibly important for us to remember Banned Book Week & to try to combat censorship by promoting our freedom to read. It's all too easy to assume that we'll never lose that right & all too easy for us to eventually lose it if we aren't careful.